revisionist

What kind of God?

What kind of God?

In September, five members of Changing Attitude England met in a London garden one afternoon to explore our beliefs about God. I had circulated a position paper beforehand setting out my thoughts as a framework for our conversation. The five of us who met in the garden, plus one, wish to extend the conversation we began by organising an open event on 2nd March 2024 at St Andrew’s Short Street, Waterloo from 10.00 to 16.00 when we hope many of you will bring your own experience to the gathering, exploring our understandings of God in our human awareness and vision raised by the question What kind of God do we believe in?

God is a revisionist

God is a revisionist

Prejudice, abuse, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, racism, are not and can never be Christian fundamentals. Life in all its fulness and God’s unconditional, infinite, intimate love have become fundamentals for me – revisionist fundamentals – for the formation of a healthy personal spirituality and faith and for the evolution of a non-abusive Church. They underpin all progressive movements towards justice, equality and full inclusion, the contemporary foundations of a movement rooted in God who is ontologically, in essence, a revisionist. Revision is integral to the nature of that which we name God.

It's time to tell a new story or, how do we get out of this mess?

It's time to tell a new story or, how do we get out of this mess?

Is it reasonable to hope for a better world? asks George Monbiot in an article in Saturday’s Guardian Review. George wrote that the answer to his question appears to be no. Four observations he has been making reveal that the current political failure is, in essence, a failure of imagination. I think the failure of the Church of England to give hope for a better world is also a failure of imagination, a failure to tell an inspiring Christian narrative. I believe the Church of England must do this if it is to remain a recognisably Christian, redemptive, transformative body of people, manifesting the unconditional, infinite, intimate love of God. We must, must become a diverse church. We must develop the ability to nurture people’s altruism, empathy and deep sense of connection, with self, other people, and the sacred.